As the various racing powers gird their loins to elect or appoint former colonists to become our New Glorious Leaders who will take us into the sunny uplands, it is the first day of the People’s Progressive Cheltenham. A different racing programme, lower this, better that, a special deal in the town itself to ensure that there are at least one hundred beds available for under £300 per night on any day of The Festival and a traffic and parking system, that will be the envy of many Romanian ruralities.
This brave new world of National Hunt racing under a Labour Government launches on the day when the Lancet published a report saying that the whole of the world was doomed, thanks to the appalling disease of gambling. A malicious part of me wants to take Dr Puritan from The Lancet to a Triad-run “Big Stall” in Hong Kong and watch as he explains why Bō láahm (illegal soccer gambling) is bringing the glorious game into disrepute, why Fan Tan is no good and how he is going to get all the Mayors of all the Cities in the UK to shut down their Chinatown “Bamboo Houses” and stop illegal Mah Jong gambling. I’d have the good doctor as 6/4 on for incurable by midnight.
Of course, I jest… but I do it through a vale of tears. The Jockey Club is in financial trouble. National Hunt Racing is losing its social licence to operate, and its finances are being imperilled by the Gambling Commission, The NHS, the government, and the sport itself.
I wish I could say that I see the signs of a cohesive, thrusting, planned, long-term strategy with great people selected to do a unifying job measured by KPIs that, if undelivered, will result in the dismissal of those responsible. But I fear the same-O, same-O…
Talking of the inevitable outcome of endlessly repeating the same mistakes - today’s selections might provide a different outcome…. might
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